A documentary about the food industry

Here is the FOOD INC. web site.

So... this is just the trailer. I saw the movie FOOD INC. this weekend and am really curious as to what you all have to say. Some of you are a little more connected to the agriculture industry than I am... And I don't know if big money farming really affects Idaho as much as it may in the south or mid-west. In the documentary they featured TYSON chicken farms in the south, corn farms in the mid-west and soybean farmers in Iowa.

They also shed some light on a heart breaking story about a seed cleaner... I think that is what it's called. Supposedly the company Monsanto almost has a monopoly on the soy bean because of a patent. Because of the patent it is illegal for farmers to keep their seeds. If it is suspected that a farmer has kept his own seeds Monsanto will ruin them for breaking the patent. There are only a few farmers who didn’t switch over to the Monsanto bean and continued to farm as they had in the past. However, the company can even hold these farmers liable for keeping their own seed if their seed has mixed from the seed of neighboring farms that use the Monsanto bean.

The story about Tyson chicken made me equally sick. In a struggling Southern rural community farmers contract with Tyson chicken to raise and sale chickens. At first it seems profitable to the farmer. They follow the contract and they are guaranteed payment for the product. All the farmer has to do is build a Tyson specific structure to house and raise the chickens. These chicken houses cause the average farmer to go into debt at $500,000 a building. Is the debt worth it? According to a woman who actually was willing to talk to the film makers the company is always requiring farmers to upgrade their chicken houses or else risk losing the contract. So the farmer has to pour more and more money into their business. She speculates that is how they keep the farmers from speaking out or leaving Tyson. The average farmer yields only $18,000 a year. The woman interviewed lost her contract with Tyson because she refused to upgrade her coup to meet their new regulations...

Needless to say after watching this film I was pretty horrified and depressed. Despite that you all should watch it if you can... and I really want to know if any of the propaganda rings true for you.

When my friend and I were talking about it afterwards she mentioned that it seems like this is what the scriptures are talking about when they say there will be secret combinations in the last days... This was something I found interesting... The documentary mentioned over and over again... that we should eat food in season and plant a garden... sound familiar? For real… every part of the Word of Wisdom is inspired.

Okay, I will get off of this soap box. Even if you don't comment go to the website and I don't know... Eat good food in the season it was intended... and be happy and healthy.